Automobile toy.



O. W. BARRICK & J. E. SPEICHER.

- AUTOMOBILE TOY. APPLICATION ELLED SEPT 29,1917.

Patented June 11, 1918.

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IIIII-Ir K f. JOSEPH E. SPEICHEB, F ALTOONA, PENNSYLV ll.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented same it. rare.

Application filed September 29, 1917. serial No. 198,953.

, through the action of a spiral spring used till as the power element for propelling the toy, together with a reversing gear device which is designed to be operated by the power spring.

Another object of this device is to provide an improved reversing power device whereby the direction of the toy is automatically reversed with suficient power stored in the driving spring to return the toy to its original starting point.

With these and other objects in view which will become more readily apparent as the nature of the invention is more fully brought out, the invention consists in the novel construction, combination, and arrangement of parts hereinafter more fully described, illustrated and claimed.

The-essential features of the invention involved in carrying out the objects above stated, are necessarily susceptible to some structural modification without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention, but a preferred and practical embodimentthereof is shown in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a plan view of the toy embodying the present invention, portions thereof being broken away to more clearly illustrate the gear arrangement.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on .the line 4% of Fig. l.

Fig. i is a detail view of the spiral driving spring showing its restricted side motion which facilitates the operation of the reversing gear.

Fig. 5 is a detail view showing how the end of the driving shaft opposite the winding key is mounted.

Similar reference numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several figures of the drawings.

In carrying out this invention we prefer to use a toy automobile, designated in its entirety by the numeral 10, and consisting essentially of a body 11, wheels and axles 12, wind shield 13, and a steering gear 14:.

The driving element consists essentially of a spiral spring 15, having one end thereof fixed to a frame 16, while the other end is attached to the driving shaft 17. Driving tension on the spring 15 is provided through a wing nut 18, which is rigidly attached to the shaft'll'. For the purpose of holding the tension of the spring 15 there is provided a pawl and ratchet 19, the pawl being fulcrumed on the frame at as shown in Fig. 1 of the drawings.

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For the purpose of driving the car in a forward direction there is provided a train of gears which consists essentially of two spur gears, 21 and 22, the former being carried by the drive shaft 17 while the latter is positioned on the rear driving axle 23. it will be quite obvious from this construction that the rotation of shaft 17 will likewise impart rotation to the driving axle 23 and the toy will move forward as designed.

For the purpose of providing means for operating the toy in a reverse direction there is provided a train of gears designatedby the numeral 24:, which consists of a'gear 25 secured to the rear axle '23, an idler gear 26 and a 1% wer gear 27 secured to the power shaft 1 'lheidler gear 26 is introduced for the purpose of changing the direction of motion of the toy.

From Fig. 1 it will be observed that the gear 27 must mesh with gear 26 before motion in the reverse direction can be obtained. and for the purpose of causing these gears to mesh there is provided a cage 28 which is designed to cause a restrictive longitudinal movement of the spiral driving spring 15 as well as a partially restricted motion of the spring in a vertical plane.

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v 18, whereby the said spring will be conprovide a' the body 10, disengaging the forward driv ing gears 21 and 22-and causing -the gear 27 to engage with the idler gear 26, these gears to reverse the motion of the toy.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that the shifting of the gears from a forward driving to a rearward driving position is performed automatically by the expansion of the power spring as it unwinds, to thus bring the toy back to theoperator. And, after the force of the driving spring has been s ent by the forward'and backward motion of the toy, it becomes necessary to again rewind the spiral spring. This may be accomplished by turning the wing nut tracted sufficiently to permit the pin 29 to fall and enable the nose 32 of the locking element 31 to engage with the disk 33 as shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings. This latter action, namely, the resetting-of the shaft 17, involves the manual shifting of said shaft so that the gears 26 and 27: are moved out of mesh, and the gears 21 and 22 are again intermeshed. As will be observed from Fig. 1, also Fig. 5, this manual shifting of the shaft 17 may be readily accompllshed by fin er pressure exerted on the exposed end 0 the shaft 17 which projects beyond the bracket 35. In connection with thisfeature of theinvention it may be observed that the end of the shaft 17 opposite the wing nut.18 is journaled in the side wall 36 of the toy and also in the bracket 35 which is spaced therefrom, and one end of said shaft rejects beyond the bracket to finger engaging portion for the purpose previously referred to. Furthermore, as will be observed from Fig. 5, to limit the longitudinal movement of the shaft 17 the same is provided or fitted in the space between the bracket 35 and frame of said wall 36 with a suitable stop collar or flange, or its equivalent 17*. Obviously then, the limit of longitudinal movement of the shaft 17 is equal to the distance between the .frame, and'the bracket. I

Without further description and elaboration it is thought that the many advantages of the herein described toy will be read ly apparent and what we claim and desire to be secured by Letters Patent is- 1. A toy automobile including a body,

wheels designed to carry the body, power 7 means for propelling the toy in a-forward ting motion in a reverse irection.

direction, direction reversing means actuated by the power driving element, a train of cars for transmitting forward motion to t e toy and a train of ears for transmit 2. A to automobile includin a body, wheels an axles to carry' the b y, a spiral spring constituting the power element, a

- aae aaeo '3. A toy. automobile including a driving axle, separate gears von said axle, a driving shaft, a coil spring thereon, separate spaced gears also on said driving shaft, and means automatically controlled by. the expansion of the said spring as it unwinds for shifting the gearson the driving shaft into and out of engagement with those on the said axle.

'4. A toy automobile including a driving axle having spaced gears thereon, an idler gear meshing with one of said gears, propelling means including a spring, a driving shaft, and spaced gears mounted on said shaft, and means actuated. by the unwind ing of said spring for causing said shaft to be shifted in the direction of its am's to cause the gearthereon meshing with the primary gear on the axle to shift out of engagement therewith, and the other gear on said shaft. to enga ge with said idler.

5. A toy automobile including an axle, a forward gear on said axle, a reverse gear also on said axle and spaced from the forward gear, an idler meshing with the re means actuated by the unwindin of said spring for causing the shifting o the said shaft. l

6. Atoy automobile including an axle, a forward gear on said axle, a reversegear also on said axle and spaced from the forward gear, an idler meshing with the reverse gear, and means for driving said axle through the gears including a shaft, a spring for rotating said shaft, spaced gears on said shaft for engaging at proper-intervals the forward and reverse gears on the axle, and means for shifting said shaft including an abutment thereon, a spring positioned to exert its influence upon said abutment, and a shiftable stop element having one end engaging with the abutment on the shaft to maintain the spring which engages therewith under compression, and also which drives the aoaaeo parallel to the driving axle and having shaft whereby the other gear of the latter thereon gears spaced apart but arranged may mesh with the idler associated with closer together than the gears on the driv-- the reverse gear of the axle.

ing axle, a spring for I'otatin said shaft, a In testimony whereof we aflix our signa- 5 device for maintaining said s aft in such a tures in the presence of two witnesses.

position that one of the gears thereof is ini- OLIVER W. BARRICK,

tially in mesh with the forward gear of the J'QSEPH E. SPEIOHER. axle, and means controlled by the movement Witnesses: x of the spring for releasing said device to GHARLEs E. 13mm,

10 permit the sameto cause the shifting of. the WM. J. MORLUF. 

